I have lost my ability to read

[AArdvark]

Not comprehension or anything, but the ability to sit down with a book, an actual novel, and just read. The focus is gone. It's a sharp realization that I can't read more than a chapter without pulling back mentally and just not caring. The last thing I read was the Raiders of the Lost Ark transcript that Flack posted on Facebook. Well I read some of it, anyway. I may go back and try for the rest if I can.

I blame the internet. I can wade through 180+ troll responses to Apple products but can't finish two chapters of...well anything. I have a whole bookcase full of my favorite authors and well, frankly I'm afraid to pick one up cause I probably wont be able to get into them anymore.

I understand that all the mental stimulation of the internet causes brain changes...well this really hits home.


THE
DISTURBED
AARDVARK

[Tdarcos]

I understand that all the mental stimulation of the internet causes brain changes...well this really hits home.

I don't think it's just the internet; I think the proliferation of electronic entertainment causes this because overstimulation tends to lower attention span, so they make shows more compelling to grab people's attention and hold them through the commercials.

This isn't new; someone sort of made fun of this with a series of skits during some show, I forget which one, and the series of skits was called "Short Attention Span Theater."

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Vark, this same thing happened to me the other day. I was trying to read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I had some assumptions about the novel, chiefly that people said it was the greatest true crime book ever written and that there would be blood.

The first few chapters calmly and sweetly introduces you to a normal Kansas family.

Dude, I couldn't get more than a page before I started flipping the pages of my tablet, hoping for "good parts." You know, where the family gets shot in the faces with shotguns. I gave the book up.

Couple nights before flying back to Rochester I decided that I wasn't going to let things end this way. I started that book back from the start and read ever. single. word. I mean, not out loud, but I looked at every single word until it registered, and then went to the next one.

Like you said, I can read posts on this BBS just fine, but my appreciation for decent literature that wasn't explosions and gas fires was gone. I had to retrain myself to read like an adult again. God.

(That said, In Cold Blood is amazing.)

[Tdarcos]

(That said, In Cold Blood is amazing.)

It wasn't until the incident of the Clutter family, who were just a relatively modest farm family in very rural Kansas, that the idea of a home invasion robbery became part of the public consciousness. Most people are decent, normal folks who would have no idea of the kind of sociopathic, nihilistic behavior some crooks could and do engage in, especially those who live in otherwise innocent communities in the middle of nowhere, like the Clutters did.

In fact, I saw a show from the 1950s about a guy who used someone else's name to set himself up as a professional engineer and scam people. Even that far back we had cases of what we now call identity theft but it was so rare we didn't have a name for it then.

I've left my own answer longer here than the normal 12-line limit because I wanted to point out - originally unintentionally - how short attention span can cause things like diverting from the main point.

So let me return back to the main point to ask anyone here who wants to answer, I am wondering if this problem of attention span applies to other cerebral-type things beyond reading, I mean, if you do non-computer games like playing cards, or historic games like chess and checkers, and newer board games like Life®, Monopoly®, Sorry®, or Scrabble®, do you have problems paying attention, or do you even play them anymore? And do board games provide as much satisfaction to play as some of the really complicated video games?

I can point Pinback at this one, because he and I played correspondence chess for a while, Ben, how does that compare with something like StarCraft? Do you even play chess any more (or is it just there's nobody really around to do so?) Does Kathy play chess?

[pinback]

Ben, how does that compare with something like StarCraft?

StarCraft is a REASON I can't read or concentrate anymore. It requires insane split-second multitasking, nonstop activity (if you haven't clicked the mouse or hit a hotkey in over a second, you're probably doing it wrong), and the whole thing is over in 15 minutes, tops.

Now you want me to sit there and think for five minutes about which pawn to move? Girl, you must be out yo mind.

[Tdarcos]

Girl, you must be out yo mind.

Urge Overkill (and Neil Diamond) sang "Girl, you'll be a woman, soon," and Milli Vanilli <s>sang</s> were not the actual singers on "Girl, you know it's True," and supposedly in both cases the song was directed to a woman. That is not true in my case and please don't refer to me as such.

Also, your "gansta rap" form of improper English does not enhance your standing; it demeans you. People remember Winston Churchill and Shakespeare because of their wonderful use of language. Anyone can be stupid and those who are, are often soon forgotten, swept into the dustbin of history, returning unknown and unwept into the dust from whence they came.

----
What did you call me?
I didn't call you anything, sarge.
You called me a ewe, boy. A ewe is a female sheep. What, sweetpea, you wanna fuck me in the ass or something?
- Lou Gossett, An Officer and a Gentleman